The Lost Train
Train transporting Nazi prisoners in 1945
The Lost Train (German: Verlorener Zug) also known as "The lost Transport" (German: Zug der Verlorenen), was the third of three trains that were intended to transport prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to Theresienstadt during the final phase of World War II as Allied troops approached the camp. The train was halted from further progress by the destroyed railway bridge at the Black Elster river near Tröbitz. The Jewish prisoners were discovered and freed by the Red Army.
History
During the last weeks of World War II, the SS transported Jewish concentration camp prisoners on trains from Bergen-Belsen to Theresienstadt as the Allied front pushed closer to the concentration camp. Between 6 and 11 April 1945, three transport trains with a total of around 7,500 people, deemed Austauschjuden ("exchange Jews") by the SS, were selected to be taken to the other camp. The selection was based on Jews who had held a high position, and could be exchanged for German prisoners of war. About one-third were Dutch Jews. The prisoners from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were put on three trains to be transported to Theresienstadt.Only one train reached Theresienstadt, due to a railway bridge blowing up outside of Tröbitz by allied bombing preventing the third train from completing the trip. The first was freed by American troops at Farsleben a few days after departing Bergen-Belsen while the second reached Theresienstadt. The third transport would be the one known as the Lost Train.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Lost Train” as train transporting Nazi prisoners in 1945. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as train transporting Nazi prisoners in 1945. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20502185. Authority coordinates are 51.593, 13.423. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Lost Train” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.